Best place to creep out retail employees by shopping for do-it-yourself bondage

June 25, 2008

Chains, locks, electrical tape . . . No, it’s not a BDSM store; it’s the Chelsea Home Depot. Getting tied up can be a wonderful thing, but it shouldn’t have to be expensive. So why spend sex-shop prices for your basic bondage needs ($30 dollars for a piece of nylon rope? $45 dollars for two feet of chain with a clasp?) when there’s a home-improvement store around the corner modestly waiting to be transformed into a dom’s paradise? You won’t find leather gear or floggers here (though the truly thrifty BDSMer need only fork out a few bucks at a craft shop for a spool of lanyard and a D-ring to make one of those). You will, however, find dowels for posture bars, eyelet hooks for locking subs to walls, and plenty of orange-besmocked salespeople ready to cut you a suspicious array of ropes and chains with no foreseeable “practical” purpose.